Backing Yourself and Your Health
Providing a disability-orientated view on the key aims for World Health Day this year.
By Gemma Foord, Whizz Kidz Communications Volunteer
It is World Health Day on 7thApril, and the theme this year is “Together For Health, Stand With Science”. According to WHO’s website, “it is celebrated annually and each year draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world”.
The WHO also sets out aims related to this theme:
- Ask. Share. Stand with science.
- Commit to science-based policy and One Health action
- Activate. Explain. Lead.
- Be ambassadors of science
You can read more on them here.
Disability, chronic illness, health conditions and neurodiversity are often seen as a barrier to an individual’s ability to participate in society. But the disabled community thinks and acts differently – outside the box, with new perspectives. To us, there is always more that can be done, and things that can be made better. We never stop making change.
Policy work and its implementations into society and the wider world is something that is at the heart of Whizz Kidz. So I thought I would provide a disability-orientated view on the key aims for World Health Day this year.
1) Ask. Share. Stand with science.
Everybody can benefit from a better understanding of disabilities and conditions. On a wider scale, this extends to a better understanding of inclusivity. If you want to ask somebody a question about their condition, it is important to be sensible and considerate. It is much better to ask and understand than to assume or ignore. You’ll find that most people are perfectly happy to answer questions you have!
If somebody has a suggestion to improve inclusivity, this is a good thing! Even if making a change requires some thought or work to be put into it by the industry or business; it will pay dividends.
Reasonable adjustments can benefit everyone, not just disabled people.
2) Commit to science-based policy and One Health action
For disabled people and wheelchair users, the health industry is often a difficult space to navigate. This applies not only on a practical level, but also in terms of careers and opportunities. The WHO estimates that around 1.3 billion people around the world live with a disability. Yet there is still difficulty regarding the relationships between health, science and disability.
According to charity The King’s Fund, “Health and care services need to understand the broad diversity of disabled people’s identities and experiences, and adopt a social model approach to disability, understanding that people are disabled by barriers in society, rather than by impairments or health conditions.” Whizz Kidz agrees with this model. It puts the individual front and centre, helping them to fully integrate into a modern society, and making their disability an everyday part of their identity.
The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) industry itself is one which particularly lacks disabled representation. The British Science Association notes that only 11% of STEM workers are disabled. This creates something of a negative cycle: there are fewer disabled people in STEM industries, and they often struggle to access these industries and their opportunities. But the healthcare industry would highly benefit from the diversity and lived experience which disabled people have in abundance.
3) Activate. Explain. Lead.
Making science and health accessible comes in many forms. It goes without saying that the science and health industries should make information easy to understand and accessible in different formats. This is especially important given that disabled people have a lot of active experience in medical settings, from appointments or procedures for example. Healthcare services are thankfully well-adapted nowadays to accommodate different conditions and their assistive aids.
Disabled or not, lived experience matters. Being listened to is paramount.
If you are concerned about your health, listen to your gut. You know your body best. Get people to stand in your corner. Especially if you are disabled or a wheelchair user, navigating the health environment can be endlessly difficult, in a number of ways. If you feel you need something, do not be afraid to say so and fight to get the care that you feel you need.
4) Be ambassadors of science
Even if you’re not a scientific expert, disabled people can be considered experts in advocacy and changemaking. At Whizz Kidz, this includes the work of the Youth Board and Whizz Kidz Collective. I often find that asking for help or advice (even if I am a little reluctant to do so, or don’t particularly want to) gets a better result than doing it by myself. As a disabled person, you grow up wishing for independence and freedom; there are good and bad days. But it is also important to remember that help, encouragement and confidence – from both yourself and others – is never a bad thing. It took me a long time to realise that!
Whizz Kidz certainly gives “freedom on wheels”, if you like, to hundreds of children and young people every year. There is so much support available all around you – but when you’re disabled, sadly you often have to work a lot harder to find it. Which is why charities like Whizz Kidz are so vital – to be able to be a source of support and confidence for young disabled people and wheelchair users.
The good news is: if you fight to be heard and for what you feel needs to be done, change will happen eventually. Maybe not as fast as we would like it to, but it will.
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